Dress-stay



(No Model.)

DRESS STAY.

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P 1 4 M a M b u a. M 1 S r m L w M m Q w JOHN BYFIELD, OF CI-IELMSFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

DRESS- STAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 598,174, dated February 1, 1898. Application filed July 13, 1897. Serial No. 644,414. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern: I

Be it known that I, JOHN BYFIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chelmsford, in the county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Stays, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This improvement relates to that class of stays which are made of wire; and it is designed to provide a stay that can be used either as a simple stay or in connection with hooks as a dress-fastening, and at the same time be cheaply made, readily attached, and so formed as not to be likely to wear holes in the dress.

To these ends the invention consists in the peculiar construction hereinafter described and then definitely claimed at the end hereof.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a face View of one form of my stay. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same inclosed in fabric. Fig. 3 shows another form of my invention. Fig. 4 shows the same inclosed in fabric. Fig. 5 shows still another form of stay.

Referring nowto the details of the drawings by numerals, 1 represents the stay,which is made of a continuous wire bent, as shown, so as to form two members or stays side by side united at top. One of the stays is bent at the end, so as to form a loop 2, which incloses the lower end of the other stay, which will prevent the end of said stay from cutting a hole in the fabric in which it may be inclosed.

The stays may be both straight, as in Fig.

1, or one may have a series of semicircular bends 3, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4:, so that the hooks may readily engage therewith.

This stay thus formed with multiplex members may be made and sold to dressmakers and others to sew in the dress as desired; but I prefer to inclose the same in cloth or other fabric, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, so that the combined stay as a whole may be readily sewed to a dress or other object requiring a stay. If it is to be used with hooks, as in the opening of a dress, the fabric should have openings 3 formed in the fold to allow of the hooks on the opposite side of the dress engaging with the stay at the edge of the fold. Either style of stay may be made in this way.

I do not propose to limit myself to two stays formed of a continuous wire, but I may use three or more, an example of this being shown in Fig. 5, in which three stays are formed of a continuous piece.

After the stays are inclosed in the cloth they are stitched in place, as indicated by the dotted lines 5 in Figs. 2 and 4.

The advantages of this stay are its strength and lightness, it being very strong in proportion to its weight. It not only yields inward or outward, but laterally also, whereas the ordinary style of stay does not yield laterally.

What I claim as new is I 1. A stay comprising multiplex members formed of a continuous wire, the end of one member being inclosed within a bend formed on the end of another member, substantially as described.

2. A stay comprising multiplex members formed of a continuous Wire, the end of one member being inclosed within a bend formed on the end of another member, and one of the members having a series of loops formed thereon, substantially asdescribed.

3. A stay comprising multiplex members formed of a continuous wire sewed between layers of fabric, and having one of its ends inclosed in a bend formed on the end of another member, and one of the members having a series of loops formed thereon, which loops project through openings made in the fabric, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses, this 12th day of July, 1897.

JOHN BYFIELD.

Witnesses:

JOHN J. PICKMAN, BLANOHE M. HUTCHINS. 

